Surface Owner Protection Act

A bill to amend the Mineral Leasing Act to ensure that development of certain Federal oil and gas resources will occur in a manner that protects water resources and respects the rights of surface owners, and for other purposes.

8/1/2007--Introduced.
Surface Owner Protection Act - Amends the Mineral Leasing Act to require an operator producing oil or gas (including coalbed methane) under a federal lease to:
(1) replace the water supply of a water user who obtains all or part of it from an underground or surface source affected by contamination, diminution, or interruption proximately resulting from such drilling operations; and
(2) comply with federal and state law governing discharge of water produced under the lease. Prohibits the Secretary of the Interior from authorizing exploration and drilling operations on land with respect to which title to oil and gas resources is held by the United States but not the title to the surface estate, unless the operator has filed a document with the Secretary, signed by the operator and surface owners, that a written surface use agreement has been consummated meeting certain criteria. Cites conditions under which the Secretary may authorize an operator to conduct exploration and drilling operations in the absence of such an agreement. Requires the Secretary to comply with specified surface owner notification requirements.
Sets forth reclamation and bond requirements.


... morehide bill summary

Sponsor

• Sen. Jon Tester [D, MT]

Committees

• Senate Energy and Natural Resources

Amendments

This bill has no amendments.

Amendments to S.1931

Number	Status	Purpose

Bill Status

Make a Bill Status Widget

	OpenCongress widgets allow you to display information about bills and issue areas on your own website or blog. First, select which bill or issue you want to track, then customize the appearance of the panel, and finally paste a simple chunk of HTML into your site. Now your community will have an easy, up-to-date way to track the status of important bills and issues in Congress.

Introduced		Voted on by Senate		Voted on by House		Considered By President		Bill Becomes Law
August 01, 2007

Show All Actions (3 actions)Hide Actions

All Bill Actions

• Introduced on Aug 01, 2007.
• Aug 01, 2007: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S10623)
• Aug 01, 2007: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

---

Related Issue Areas:

• Natural resources
• Administrative procedure
• Congress
• Congressional investigations
• 20 more
• Congressional reporting requirements
• Department of the Interior
• Energy
• Environmental protection
• Finance
• Government information
• Government paperwork
• Infrastructure
• Law
• Liability for environmental damages
• Methane
• Oil and gas leases
• Oil well drilling
• Prospecting
• Reclamation of land
• Surety and fidelity
• Water pollution
• Water quality
• Water resources
• Water supply

Data from the Congressional Research Service

Show More User Statistics... Hide User Statistics

In the News

We are not currently finding any news articles on this topic using our daily automated search of Google News. However, if you know of a relevant news article to display here, OpenCongress site editors have the ability to add it manually. Simply e-mail us the web address of this page and the web address of your suggested news article: We'll post relevant links as quickly as possible. Also, if this topic is important to you, you could write a letter to the editor -- if a news article refers this specific topic by name, a link to that news article is likely to appear here soon.

Information made available by:

Blog Coverage

November 18, 2008 Das Bundesverfassungsgericht

April 2005 - 1 BvR 1924/04 -, NJW 2005, S. 1931 ; 3. Kammer des Zweiten Senats, Beschluss vom 30. Juni 2005 - 2 BvR 1664/04 - ; WM 2005, S. 1577 ; 2. Kammer des Ersten Senats, Beschluss vom 29. Mai 2007 - 1 BvR 624/03 ...

Was this article useful? Yes or No

Source: Bundesverfassungsgericht Newsfeed

Did you find this article useful? Your opinion counts - together, we're finding the very best news and blog coverage about Congress available on the web.

October 03, 2007 Birding Community E-bulliten

A few weeks later, in August, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) introduced similar - but not identical - legislation (S. 1931) under the same name. The bills are now collecting Congressional co-sponsors. These legislators' proposals would ...

Was this article useful? Yes or No

Source: Klamath Basin Birding Trail

Did you find this article useful? Your opinion counts - together, we're finding the very best news and blog coverage about Congress available on the web.

September 05, 2007 Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter in the 104th Congress

S.1931 : An Act to provide that the United States Post Office and Courthouse building located at 9 East Broad Street, Cookeville, Tennessee, shall be known and designated as the "L. Clure Morton United States Post Office Courthouse". ...

Was this article useful? Yes or No

Source: News Which Cannot Lose

Did you find this article useful? Your opinion counts - together, we're finding the very best news and blog coverage about Congress available on the web.

2 more posts...
See most useful blog posts

Information made available by: